St. Paul police officer pleads guilty in gun case
February 9, 2005

ST. PAUL - A police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to aiding and abetting the making of a terroristic threat after he loaned his service pistol to someone who used it in a drive-by shooting at the home of a Hmong official's translator. Tou Cha, 36, entered the guilty plea in Ramsey County District Court as part of a plea deal in which prosecutors promised to ask for a sentence of 30 days in the workhouse, five years probation and no prison time. In addition, Cha was required to immediately surrender his state police officer's license and resign from the St. Paul Police Department, where he was an 11-year veteran. He must also pay $1,000 restitution for damage done in the April 20 shooting. Prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges, including aiding in the criminal damage of property and aiding and abetting a second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. Sentencing was scheduled for April 27. Cha, from Little Canada, had admitted that he lent his pistol to a man he called his Hmong cousin. Cha said in court Tuesday that he knew the man intended to use the pistol to scare someone. No one was hurt in the shooting. Investigators have not charge anyone with firing Cha's pistol at the home of Xang Vang, a translator to Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao. Cha was put on administrative leave after the charges were filed in June.



TB fears have put Hmong refugees' lives on hold
Mon, Feb. 07, 2005

ST. PAUL, Minn. - What little she had, Yer Xiong was giving away - pots and pans, a small TV. In only a few days, she would leave behind her dirt-floored, bamboo-walled shack in a refugee shantytown in Thailand to begin her new life in the United States. Now those plans are on hold indefinitely for Yer Xiong, her family and 6,000 other Hmong refugees waiting to move to this country. A tuberculosis outbreak prompted the U.S. State Department to put a temporary stop to the Hmong resettlement. "They were scheduled to come Feb. 7," said her cousin, Lee Pao Xiong, executive director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul. "Because they were going to come, they had started giving away their stuff," he said. "Now we have no idea when they're coming. It's a big disappointment, more so for them. They have had hopes and dreams of coming to America, but now they don't know when they will get to." The halt came after TB cases turned up, despite screening procedures, in some newly arrived refugees in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California, and among a number of refugees still at the squalid camp. State Department officials are working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Thai authorities to re-examine refugees under enhanced guidelines and investigate the outbreak. State Department officials have not said when the resettlement will resume. Some Twin Cities families had bought or rented homes for relatives they expected to arrive from the camp, said Ilean Her, executive director of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans. "It's putting a strain on the community here and a strain on the community there," Ilean Her said of the temporary halt to the resettlement. "I just don't think people really know what's going on." Josh Straka, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said State Department officials have reiterated that the resettlement stay is indefinite. Some refugees who have negative test results may get to move while those with the disease are in treatment, he said. Suspension of the resettlement campaign leaves Yer Xiong, her husband and their children with fewer possessions and less hope than ever, said Lee Pao Xiong, who spoke to his cousin by phone after the resettlement halt was announced Jan. 28. It also leaves families here, who had been counting on welcoming long-separated relatives, scrambling to send money overseas to help family buy food. Lee Pao Xiong visited the camp just last month, spending time with Yer Xiong, and another cousin, Chong Tou Xiong, their parents and their families. Of the 18 relatives Lee Pao Xiong and his extended family have expected to come since refugees began arriving in June, only three have made it to this country. In all, 9,000 Hmong have been resettled, the vast majority in three states: Minnesota, where officials have reported one TB case and four suspected ones; Wisconsin, which has four cases; and California, with 20 cases, including four that are multidrug-resistant. News of the TB outbreak added to the struggles of those at the rudimentary settlement on the grounds of Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple north of Bangkok. Residents must pay for water, food, firewood, clothing and other basic needs. Thai employers, who used to hire Hmong laborers from the camp, now shun them. Thai military members who guard the camp wear protective masks. Because few refugees can earn a living in the camp, the survival of many depends on money relatives send from overseas. In weekend phone calls, Lee Pao Xiong said both cousins told him the cash he had given them last month and their food supplies were running out. Lee Pao Xiong said he would talk to relatives about taking up a collection to send to his cousins.